Debra Brown | Wednesday January 9th 2019

New York City Mayor Bill de Blazio signed a measure into law allowing anyone who was born in New York City the ability to have the gender marker on their birth certificate changed to X, rather than simply male (M) or female (F), and are able to do so without a doctor’s note or a medical assessment.

The New York City law doesn’t allow parents to select X at birth, but they will have the ability to change the gender marker on the certificate any time before the child is 18 years old. People over the age of 18 have the ability to make the change themselves.

Two men have been arrested for the death of Jazmine Barnes, a 7 year old girl who was murdered while riding in a car with her family.

Eric Black Jr. and Larry Woodruffe will face a charge of capital murder. The prime suspect was believed to be a white man, new details reveal that man was an innocent bystander and the shooting was a case of ‘mistaken identity’.

Tennesse Governor Bill Haslam has granted clemency to Cyntoia Brown, a victim of human trafficking, who has been serving a life sentence for a murder she committed in self-defense when she was 16 years old.

Brown has already served 15 years in prison; she wouldn’t have been eligible for parole until she had served at least 36 more years.

Advocates have called for cases such as Brown’s to be reconsidered under “safe harbors” laws that provide more protections for minors who were the victims of trafficking.